Interaction and feedback on performance are essential elements of the language learning process. On a distance-learning course, since opportunities for interaction may be limited, feedback plays a crucial role in opening and maintaining a dialogue between tutors and students. Using text analysis, questionnaire and interview data, this study explores both tutor and student perspectives on the feedback offered on a distance language course. It finds that there are considerable individual differences in the feedback offered by tutors and there is also variation in the type of feedback the students want and their reported uses of it. The article suggests that more training for both tutors and students is necessary to adequately exploit feedback's potential in a distance-learning context.
[Copyright of Open Learning is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680510120084959]

Using multivariate discriminant analysis and the data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999, this paper made 5 individual comparisons between the U.S. middle school system and 5 Asian middle school systems, which have typically been top ranked in mathematics and science achievement scores. The discriminant analysis was based on variables related to school and classroom environment as well as students' out-of-school life, home background, and self-perceptions about mathematics and science. The results reveal significant differences between American schools and their Asian counterparts. The author explains these differences in terms of the societal difference in the position of schooling in the lives of American adolescents versus the more central position of schooling in the lives of their East Asian counterparts.
[Copyright of Educational Research & Evaluation is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803610500110810]

Since Hong Kong's sovereignty reverted to China in 1997, the university Adult and Continuing Education (ACE) sector has faced an array of unprecedented challenges created mainly through government policy initiatives, an associated and rapid increase in the demand for continuing education, and dramatic changes in the nature of that demand. This paper reports the outcomes of a qualitative study that examined how the sector responded to these challenges. It identifies and describes a triangle of inter-related strategies of response, namely 'building organisational strength', 'programme planning and development' and 'quality assurance'.
[Copyright of Research in Post-Compulsory Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13596740600768943]

Confronted with the rise of a new group within its organization, Small World, an international Christian kindergarten in Hong Kong, is being forced to reconsider its boundaries. The trend towards more applications to international schools by Hong Kong Chinese, adds an extra dimension to the already extensive cultural diversity among the kindergarten's staff, students and their parents. Describing the appreciation for cultural diversity amongst staff and parents, the strategies that are used to maintain harmony and the motives that (Hong Kong Chinese) parents have for participation in the school, it is argued that only one effect of globalization on the macro level can be identified on the micro and meso level, namely indigenization. The article shows how parents, staff and the organization all try to adopt attractive or useful elements of foreign cultures without giving up their own culture, and subsequently foster multiculturalism in an attempt to reach their goals, these being the cultural competence of their children for Hong Kong Chinese parents and success for the organization. The resulting demand for the incorporation of extra foreign elements in the curriculum is forcing Small World to reconsider its boundaries.
[Copyright of Asia Pacific Business Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602380500135901]

There is increasing pressure toward professionalisation of university teaching, through the attendance of academic development courses and programmes. This is based on the expectation that such courses lead to more student-focused perspectives on teaching and learning and more effective teaching and learning practices. In this study we interviewed alumni of a Graduate Certificate programme, to explore its effects on teachers' self-reported experiences of teaching and the scholarship of teaching. This suggested that the programme had been successful in fostering the development of more complex experiences for most interviewees.
[Copyright of International Journal for Academic Development is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13601440802242382]

This article presents a conceptual framework for evaluating the teaching effectiveness of distance education courses and demonstrates how student evaluations can be analysed by rigorous statistical techniques. The conceptual framework consists of four dimensions which relate to student development, assessment, learning materials, and a face-to-face component. Each dimension subsumes a number of attributes. Justification for inclusion of the dimensions and attributes is presented. Based on the conceptual framework, a student questionnaire was developed. The interrater reliability and construct validity of student evaluations collected by the questionnaire were demonstrated through analysis of variance and hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis, respectively.
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What international framework, if any, is higher education subject to in terms of its work, not in the sense of validating its programmes or safeguarding its academic freedom, but in terms of its funding, its operating environment and its stakeholders? Is it viewed as a business in some sense? Is it subject to trade rules and negotiations? All of these questions have, to some extent, been raised in the World Trade Organisation's 'Doha Round' of negotiations. Has agreement been reached or has the overall operating context of economies submerged higher education, in particular agriculture? This article analyses the brief history of the Doha Round and the possible categorization of higher education within a commercial framework. Conclusions are reached at the end.
[Copyright of Education and the Law is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09539960601036235]

A total of 712 students of the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) - sampled from high achievers and low achievers, as defined by their performances in their overall course scores in four consecutive semesters--participated in the study. An instrument, the Survey of Students' Study Preferences and Habits, developed and validated for the study was also used to collect data from the students who participated. The data collected through this instrument were complemented with in-depth telephone interviews using a sub-set of 32 from the main study sample.The analysis of the data, using both qualitative and quantitative methods which included descriptive and inferential statistics, showed very interesting patterns of differences in locus of control and the use of mctacognitivc strategics by low achievers and high achievers. For instance, high achievers rated themselves significantly higher than low achievers (p<. 01) in a number of scales such as confidence with studies, ability to cope well with studying in distance learning mode, and motivation by the need to avoid failure. High achievers indicated a significantly higher use of effective learning strategies than did low achievers (p <.01).
[Copyright of Distance Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0158791990200206]